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PAULSBORO, N.J. — A freight train derailed Friday on a railroad bridge that has had problems before, toppling tanker cars partially into a creek and causing a leak of hazardous gas that was blamed for sickening dozens of people, authorities said.

Members of the National Transportation Safety Board arrived in New Jersey on Friday afternoon to investigate. They will try to determine whether the derailment was caused by a problem with the bridge, or if the derailment was to blame for the bridge’s partial collapse.

A delicate operation lies ahead, as a huge crane was being brought from New York Harbor to pick up the dangling tanker cars.

The accident happened just after 7 a.m. when a train with two locomotives, 83 freight cars and a caboose made its way from Camden to the industrial town of Paulsboro.

Cars from a train operated by CSX went off the rails on a swing-style bridge, owned by Conrail, over Mantua Creek.

Seven cars derailed, including two boxcars on stable ground and five on the bridge. NTSB chairman Deborah Hersman said four tankers were partially in the creek.

One tanker containing 25,000 gallons of vinyl chloride was sliced open in the accident. Some of the gas spewed into the air, while the rest turned into a solid and settled into the bottom of the tanker.

More than 70 people were treated at Underwood-Memorial Hospital, most complaining of breathing problems, burning eyes or scratchy throats, said spokeswoman Karen Urbaniak.

CASPER, Wyo. — A man wielding a sharp-edged weapon killed one person in a Casper neighborhood Friday before killing a male teacher and himself in front of students in a community college classroom, causing a campuswide lockdown as authorities tried to piece together what happened.

Police found the suspect and one of the victims dead at a science building on the Casper College campus, which was locked down for about two hours, school and police officials said. The other victim was found about two miles away.

Casper Police Chief Chris Walsh said the murder-suicide took place in a classroom with students present, but he did not know how many students or what the class topic was.

He said investigators do not know the motive for the killings.

Walsh said an “edged weapon” was used it at least one of the killings, but he did not offer specifics, and it wasn’t clear if the same or a similar weapon was used in all of the deaths.

The attacker wasn’t believed to be a Casper College student and it appeared he knew the victims, Walsh said. He didn’t identify the suspect or victims but said the victims were a male and a female.

He added authorities don’t believe there is any further threat to the community.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A first-of-its-kind California law prohibiting licensed psychotherapists from counseling gay minors on how to become heterosexual faced its first legal test Friday as lawyers for those who support “reparative therapy” asked a federal judge to block the ban.

U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller in Sacramento held a 50-minute hearing on whether the law violates the First Amendment and should be kept from taking effect as scheduled Jan. 1.

Four counselors and two sets of parents who say their teenage sons have been helped by psychological efforts to change their sexual orientations are suing to overturn the law.

Their lawyer, Mathew Staver, asked Mueller to keep it on hold while the lawsuit proceeds, arguing that the ban would force young people who do not want to be gay to turn to unlicensed counselors.

Lawyers for the state argue the ban is appropriate because it seeks to protect young people from a practice that supposes an individual’s sexual orientation should be changed instead of regarding homosexuality as a healthy part of the human experience.

WASHINGTON — Testing the waters of what is expected to be a turbulent battle over immigration policy next year, the House voted Friday to make green cards accessible to foreign students graduating with advanced science and math degrees from U.S. universities.

But even this limited step, strongly backed by the high-tech industry and enjoying some bipartisan support, is unlikely to go anywhere this session of Congress, dramatizing how difficult it will be to find lasting solutions to the nation’s much-maligned immigration system.

A more sweeping bill presumably would deal not only with legal residents, but with the estimated 11 million people here illegally.

Republicans largely shunned by Hispanic voters and other minorities in the November elections used Friday’s 245-139 vote for the STEM Jobs Act to show they have softened their hard-line immigration policies and are ready to work for more comprehensive legislation.

GOP leaders also added a provision making it easier for immigrants working in the country legally to bring their spouses and children to the United States while they wait for their visa applications to be approved. Typically, family members now wait more than two years to be reunited. About 80,000 such family-based visas are issued every year.

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia — Clashes broke out Friday night in the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana as angry demonstrators tried to push through a police cordon to storm parliament and police used water cannons and tear gas to repel them.

At least 15 people were injured and 30 were arrested in what turned into a street battle between the police and groups of hooded young extremists throwing rocks, bottles and firecrackers at them.

It was the second time this week that anti-government protests in Slovenia turned violent — an extremely rare development in the otherwise calm Alpine nation.

But tensions have been soaring before a presidential runoff vote this weekend. Slovenia has been struggling economically and is in danger of needing an international bailout.

Thousands joined the protests in Ljubljana on Friday against Prime Minister Janez Jansa and his Cabinet, accusing them of corruption and fraud and demanding their resignations.

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